What connects a safety app for the workplace, financial literacy for the underprivileged and the toughest footrace on earth?

(April 22, 2016)

Good governance helps us identify the right opportunities to bundle our expertise, skills and knowledge to make a lasting, positive impact as global citizens. That impact comes in all shapes and forms. Down below is three examples from our teams in Belgium, the United States, Germany and Spain. They show how we put sustainability into practice every day. You can read more of these stories in our 2015 sustainability report.

Risk Reporter app: Safety in the workplace

In 2015, Wolters Kluwer’s Health, Safety and Environment team in Belgium launched its brand new Risk Reporter app. Free to download (and use) at the Google App store, RiskReporter offers an easy and fast way to report dangerous situations to your own safety department. Check out the video below.

Besides safety advisors, all employees can use RiskReporter. By giving your colleagues the tools to report what they see, you empower them, and enhance safety awareness too. Plus, Wolters Kluwer can even provide you with the campaign material to facilitate the roll out of RiskReporter in your company. Feel free to mail the Belgian team on HSE@wolterskluwer.be for more information.

HOPE: Promoting Financial Literacy

Our community investments are long-term partnerships between Wolters Kluwer and local organizations that help improve the quality of life in a targeted community. One example is our GRC (Governance, Risk & Compliance) division’s long-standing partnership with non-profit Operation HOPE in the United States.

HOPE’s ongoing mission is silver rights empowerment, making free enterprise work for everyone. As ‘the’ nonprofit private banker for the working poor, the underserved, and struggling middle class, their goal is to be a best-in-class provider of financial literacy empowerment for youth and financial capability for communities.

Over the years our GRC division has been happy and proud to help by providing products, knowledge and leadership in various programs such as the ‘Banking on Our Future’ initiative. To date, this program has reached over 910,000 students in more than 3,176 schools and community-based organizations in the United States and South Africa. You can follow OperationHope on twitter or check out the HOPE video over on YouTube.

Endurance: How do we win as a team?

Our Company values and sustainability strategy are deeply intertwined. In 2016, we renewed our values to help us become a more tightly knit ‘One Wolters Kluwer’ with a common global culture. But it appears that employees from our Tax & Accounting offices in Germany and Spain were one step ahead of us.

Last year, in their free time, led by Jens Riebeseel, a manager at Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting Germany, a team from Spain and Germany embarked on an amazing journey to build camaraderie, and challenge themselves to the limits of what they thought possible.

The goal they set for themselves: to compete in, and complete, the notorious Marathon des Sables (Sand Marathon)—the ‘Toughest Footrace on Earth’.

Together, they spent six days under a scorching desert sun, hiking for more than 24 hours over the rugged Saharan terrain. You can get an impression of their incredible journey here in the video below.

Finally, after more than 250 kilometres, battling sandstorms, sore ankles and more, they crossed the finish line. As Jens said, “Despite all the effort and occasional pain, in the end we actually enjoyed this extraordinary experience and the beauty of the desert”

Needless to say, we are genuinely proud of our employees, and sometimes not a little amazed. Together, we really can win as a team.

With this level of determination and dedication from our employees, we’re confident our sustainability strategy will go from strength to strength.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer N.V. (AEX: WKL) is a global leader in professional information services and solutions for professionals in the health, tax and accounting, risk and compliance, finance and legal sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services. For more information visit www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.